I would like to translate the following into Latin:
When a hen begs you to pick her up, you pick her up.
Here's my attempt:
Gallina tollenda, quae tolli rogat.
Is there a better way to express that? Thanks!
(For the record: I don't have any chickens. This is just a comment that a certain woman made to her husband, and I thought it was funny.)
Here is one expression in hexameter:
Si qua roget gallina leves, est illa levanda.
Should any hen ask you to lift, it must be lifted.
You never asked for a metric expression, but I was unable to resist.
I assumed "you" is not a specific person, so I went with a general conditional. Such a condition is often expressed by the conjunctive in Latin, whence roget instead of rogat (as I had in my original version).
In general, I think statements like this are best made with si quis/qua/quid and a general conditional. The pronoun aliquis often drops the ali- after si. The pronoun quă is a uniquely light word.
In metric poetry I don't have the luxury of clarity like in prose, so slight ambiguity remains. My "it" is a feminine singular, so without further context it must be the hen, and the object of leves is clear enough. It may be technically ambiguous, it is practically clear, just like in English where the two instances of "her" could technically refer to different things. I did contemplate a passive along the lines of si qua velit/roget gallina levetur… but I did not find a way to finish within one line, at least not as nicely.
From my admittedly inexperienced and semi-educated perspective,
Gallina tollenda, quae tolli rogat.
is excellent. It's clear and snappy. Ending on rogat concisely suggests what the English version suggests: that the hen's wishes are paramount. The English "you pick her up" means "it's just in the nature of things that you must pick her up; do not question it"—and this also fits Gallina tollenda. Perhaps rogat lacks the notion of begging, but I think precatur or orat would go overboard; those words would weaken the undertone that the hen is to be obeyed unquestioningly.
I'm thinking a future less conditional here with the imperative substituted for the apodosis:
Tolle, si qua gallina tolli desideret.
Pick her up, should any hen desire to be picked up.
I chose desidero as I'm interpreting the hen here as more than merely asking, but also wanting. In that, velle or desiderare are better choices.
